KWAZULU-NATAL Premier Sihle Zikalala says that Eskom’s electricity shortage problems undermine investment potential in the country and that the provincial government will fast-track interventions seeking to assist those who have been accredited to generate electricity in the province.
Zikalala on Wednesday engaged with the Top 100 CEOs of companies based in the province on the first day of a two-day KZN Strategic Engagement between the government and private sector to address economic-related matters.
Speaking on the sidelines of the engagement held in the lower South Coast town of Port Edward, Zikalala said that top of their agenda were issues such as economic growth in the province, stability and a conducive environment for investors.
With the country gripped by unprecedented levels of load shedding, which currently sees the country on Stage 4 of the rolling blackouts, Zikalala said that the electricity shortage was a serious bottleneck that undermined all efforts that they had put in place.
He said that the shortage of electricity affected investments because companies would want to operate in a place with sufficient infrastructure and that has no disruptions.
“The problem of Eskom and the shortage of electricity really undermines investment potential in the country.
“We are going to fast-track interventions that seek to assist those who have been accredited to generate electricity in the province so that we don’t suffer. But we have also started a process of exploring the means and ways for our municipalities to generate electricity.
“While we are waiting for the national government’s intervention as far as issues of Eskom are concerned, we are also exploring whether we can’t get support to have alternative energy generation projects,” Zikalala said.
He said that the purpose of the strategic session was to look at how government and the private sector could improve in ensuring a conducive environment for business to operate and expand.
“It is important that we always look in terms of our short-term objectives, but also link that to our long-term strategic objectives. The immediate task is to create a conducive environment for business to operate, the second is to create jobs, and that will only happen if we expand the current operations and companies and get more new investments,” Zikalala said.
He said that there was “an assurance” of this because they had gone a long way in stabilising the province and improving security systems, while also working with the private sector to consolidate security agencies and their own security strategy to work on one integrated strategy that protects all industrial areas and all businesses.
Zikalala added that they would be engaging on whether there were enough programmes and capacity to implement projects that would see the expansion of companies and job creation.
Zikalala said that they would also be hearing from the private sector on their views, strategies and plans that the government needed to adopt moving forward.
“We presented the Sopa (State of the Province Address) two weeks ago at the legislature and it received huge appreciation from the business community. We believe that based on the projects that we presented, they will also be able to acknowledge and pledge the role that they will play as the private sector,” Zikalala said.
Eskom is expected to implement Stage 3 load shedding from 9pm on Thursday night, and Stage 2 from early Friday morning until Monday.
POLITICAL BUREAU
